The mother of 46-year-old Leo Joseph Kwaske says her son was a schizophrenic who would have never hurt anyone.

In a telephone interview this morning, Kathleen Grace and her husband, Thomas, said they hadn't yet heard that Kwaske was in jail, facing charges in connection with the death of Shirley Meeks, 59. Meeks was found dead in her second-story unit at Reed Manor apartments over the weekend.

"This is the first we heard of it," said Kwaske's stepfather Thomas Grace when contacted by the Citizen Patriot. "I can't imagine he would do that."

Kathleen said her son has schizophrenia but never harmed anyone. She said had never been married and only had a girlfriend when he was in high school.

He lived on his own in an apartment on the third floor of building H, his mother said. Meeks lived in an apartment on the second floor of building H. A spokesman for Reed Manor apartments would not confirm if Kwaske was a tenant when contacted this morning.

Kathleen said she and her husband — she remarried in 2007 after her first husband and Leo's father, Gerald Kwaske, passed away — last saw Kwaske two to three weeks ago while shopping at WalMart.

"He seemed to be doing fine," Kathleen Grace said. "He got what he needed and he rode his bike away."

She was unaware of Meeks and did not know if he knew her.

"He's not an aggressive kind of person," Kathleen Grace said. "He would come over and we would ask if he wanted a pop and he would politely say no. I'm shocked and wondering about him."